All Fall Down
by Daedaleopsis
Summary: A TBBT Halloween horror story. Traditional pairings, Shenny if you squint. Probably my darkest fic to date. Contains both literal and figurative character bashing. You've been warned (cue evil laughter)... (cross-posted on AO3)


Penny stared dubiously through her windshield at the rustic log cabin in front of her. Then she turned back to her husband, who was beaming at her. "It looks okay, I guess," she said unenthusiastically.

Leonard's face fell. "Are you kidding? It looks like a picture in a magazine. I thought you'd be more grateful," he replied sulkily.

Penny stifled a heavy sigh. He'd won this weekend getaway in a radio promo by answering some obscure questions about one of his favorite sci-fi shows. She thought it might have been the show Sheldon couldn't stand, but she tended to tune out when Leonard got his geek on. Even before she'd said "I do" during the tacky elopement that she'd immediately come to regret, they were always arguing. Husband or not, it was none of his damn business how many pairs of Jimmy Choos she bought, or how much she still owed on her credit cards. Now he was acting like she should fall at his feet when all he'd done was answer a few stupid questions. "I'm looking forward to observing the migration patterns of _Branta canadensis,_ erroneously known as Canadian geese," came Amy's dull, flat voice from the back seat.

Penny's lips tightened into a hard line. This was another reason she was pissed at Leonard. If he really wanted to make her happy, he wouldn't have invited Amy or any other of their friends along on what she'd thought was supposed to be a romantic getaway. Sure, it was a four-bedroom cabin, but she really didn't want to hang around, bored senseless, while the guys broke out the Mystic Warlords cards or whatever they were into these days. Amy and Sheldon had shared the ride, and after exchanging some stilted conversation about their respective careers, they'd been silent for the majority of the trip.

Now there's a fun couple, Penny thought sarcastically. The two of them were going to put a damper on the entire weekend. Sheldon may have knuckled under to most of Amy's petulant demands, but he still refused to share a bedroom with her.

Howard and Bernadette were driving separately. Leonard and Howard had jointly made the decision not to invite Raj, since he was the only single person in their group. Penny felt bad for him. Since even Sheldon was now in a relationship, Raj was excluded from their group more often. She'd tried to talk to him about it, but he dismissed her concerns with uncharacteristic brusqueness. For a long time, he'd been the gleeful third wheel to Howard and Bernadette, but since they'd married and moved into Howard's childhood home, he seemed unhappy. Maybe if she fixed him up with one of her co-workers, he'd be back to his usual cheerful self.

With a sigh, she got out of the car and dragged everyone's luggage inside, piece by piece, while the other three were busy checking out their accommodations. Sheldon, of course, was complaining about something, while Amy was trying to get wifi for her laptop. Bernie and Howard arrived shortly afterward, and they all got settled in.

The guys tried to light a fire in the huge stone fireplace in the living room but instead filled the room with smoke. Eventually, Penny begrudgingly took pity on them and opened the flue with a poker. After a dinner of frozen entrees (they'd had to bring their own food since they were a million miles from nowhere), they dragged the couches close to the fire. Sheldon was the lone holdout, appropriating a rickety, straight-backed chair in an obvious effort to avoid sitting too close to Amy. Penny shot him a dirty look, but as usual, he was clueless as to its meaning. She didn't get why Amy continued to date Sheldon when she so obviously wanted a physical relationship, and he clearly did not.

"Hey, I've got an idea," Howard spoke up. "Since it's almost Halloween, we should watch a horror movie. How about Texas Chainsaw Massacre?"

"Cabin in the Woods is vastly more appropriate," Sheldon said, without looking up from his physics magazine.

For the first time since they left Pasadena, Penny cracked a smile. "No way. You watch horror movies? Don't they give you nightmares?"

"It's the only horror movie I've ever seen," he replied. "But it was directed by Joss Whedon, the brilliant mind behind the Avengers movie and Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Bored, Penny retreated to the bedroom as the gang began to argue about what they should watch. She seriously doubted they got good enough reception up here in the mountains to stream movies anyway. Leonard came behind her, putting his arms around her waist and nuzzling her neck. "I've got a better idea. I brought a blanket and a bottle of wine. How about we sneak off for a moonlight rendezvous?"

With her back to him, she rolled her eyes. "You want to go have sex somewhere out in the woods? If this was a horror movie, you'd just be begging for someone to off you."

"Come on, this is real life. Nothing's going to happen except we do something a little kinky, and you can make as much noise as you want."

She gritted her teeth. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that there hadn't been much "noise" in their relationship for years. Their sex life bored her so much that she'd once fallen asleep during what he called foreplay. A change of venue wasn't going to make a difference, but she also knew he'd keep pestering her until she gave in. She swiped the bottle of wine from his hand. It was already uncorked, and she took a generous swig. "There better not be any bugs out there," she grumbled, irritated at herself for once again giving in to him.

The bottle was almost empty by the time they found a small mossy glade. It had been a while since she drank like this, and the wine seemed to go straight to her head. Penny giggled as she and Leonard stumbled over the uneven ground while he pulled at her clothes. Her head was spinning, far more than usual. "Everything's so fuzzy," she muttered, unable to make her eyes focus on anything. All at once, she didn't feel so good. She closed her eyes as Leonard loomed above her. His weight seemed oppressive as he pressed her down onto the blanket. Something was wrong; his rhythmic thrusts were making her queasy. She turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping he would finish soon. Suddenly, he made a strange gurgling cry, and warm drops of liquid spattered her face as he collapsed heavily on top of her. Her first thought was that he had done something way more freaky than he usually got in the bedroom. Then she realized that there was too much of it; it was gushing all over her. She opened her eyes to find that she was covered in a thick, dark liquid with a metallic odor: blood. Screaming was a very natural reflex. She struggled to roll him off her and onto his back. Her head spun, and she almost passed out when she saw the blood pouring from his throat. Her hands were already slippery with it as she tried to staunch the flow from the cut that bisected his neck, but it was no use. His eyes were already staring fixed and vacant. Almost mindless with fear, Penny leaped up and ran, stumbling through the woods, heedless of the branches that tore at her bare skin. She lost count of how many times she fell, only to lurch to her feet. She had to get help. Finally, she saw a light in the distance. Stumbling through the front door of the cabin, she must have looked like a nightmare: naked, disheveled, and streaked with blood and dirt.

"Leonard," she gasped. "Leon-" The world faded to black.

* * *

Penny gradually floated back to consciousness. Her head rested on something firm yet warm. She wrapped her hand around her makeshift pillow and was startled into full alertness by a high-pitched squeak. She looked up and saw Sheldon staring down at her. His eyes were wide with panic. It took her several more seconds to realize why he looked so shocked. Her head was resting on his thigh, and her hand was even higher. She jerked it away as her memory flooded back in a rush. As she tried to sit up, her vision faded in and out, and her head pounded sickeningly. She clutched at a faded quilt that threatened to slip from her shoulders. Even sitting on the sofa closest to the fire, she shivered. Her body stung and ached in a million places. She raised her hand to her face and recoiled to see it covered in streaks of red and brown.

"Leonard…" she gasped.

A hand patted her shoulder, and her eyes fluttered shut again. "There, there, Sheldon's here. Lie still," he instructed in a low voice. An exchange of low murmurs culminated in him saying sharply, "This is one situation I don't think tea will improve."

She opened her eyes again. "Leonard… he was… he was hurt," she managed.

Sheldon's expression turned grim. "All we know is that you returned to the cabin alone, unclothed, covered in blood, and barely conscious. The injuries you sustained are insufficient to explain the volume of blood on you." His voice quavered as he spoke, in direct contrast to his detached recounting of events. "There was no sign of Leonard, so the others went looking for him. I elected to stay here, in case he finds his way back and requires assistance…" His voice trailed away.

Tears filled Penny's eyes as she grasped what Sheldon couldn't bring himself to say. There was little chance of Leonard coming back. She wanted to tell him what had happened, but the only sound that escaped her throat was a strangled sob.

"Amy is here now as well. She came back to check on you, despite my strict instructions that the three of them were not to separate for any reason." He paused and studied her face intently. "You're not normally inclined toward practical jokes of this magnitude, but it is close to Halloween…"

There was a pleading note in his voice she'd never heard before. Just hearing it eroded the last of her self-control, and she began sobbing again. "He was… I think he's dead. There was so much blood."

"What happened? You have to tell me. Penny, I need to know!" Sheldon's voice rose in panic.

"I… he wanted to be alone, just the two of us…"

"He wanted to conspicuously absent himself from the group to have coitus with you," he said with an edge to his voice.

Penny nodded. "He had a blanket. The wine was even open already."

"That shows premeditation, and he was certain you'd capitulate. Of course, he always seemed to have a completely inexplicable influence over you."

She shook her head, unable to make sense of the multisyllabic words he was using.

"Here, drink this." A mug was shoved under Penny's nose, and she looked up in confusion. Her gaze traveled up long, untrimmed, mud-brown hair to thick glasses and a face set in perpetual lines of dissatisfaction.

"Much as I'm a proponent of offering hot beverages in a variety of social situations, this is hardly the time. I need Penny to tell me what she remembers," Sheldon protested.

"She might be in shock," Amy argued. "And you look like you could use something soothing as well."

Grumbling, Sheldon accepted the mug Amy held out to him. At her pointed stare, he drained the tea.

Then she turned to Penny. "You too, bestie."

The last thing Penny wanted was tea, but she dutifully drank it down to make Amy happy. She watched numbly as her self-proclaimed "bestie" took the mugs back to the kitchen. Then she glanced back at Sheldon and pressed her lips together tightly. She didn't want to tell him any more. Saying it out loud would make it seem more real, and it had to be some kind of nightmare. Leonard couldn't be- Her mind shied away from the thought.

"You said he had a blanket and a bottle of wine," Sheldon prompted quietly. "He wanted to take you out into the woods… in the dark?"

Penny took a deep breath and jerked her chin once. "I guess he thought it would be romantic. I think he wanted… nothing's been the same since I found out he cheated." She dropped her head, still uncertain she'd done the right thing in pushing forward with the elopement.

Sheldon's expression darkened, but he didn't comment except to say, "Continue."

"I don't know why, but the wine went straight to my head. I started seeing double of everything, and I felt so dizzy. I just wanted it to be over, so I closed my eyes and-" She put her hands over her mouth, shaking her head as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Focus on the details. Did you hear anything? If there's any hope of assisting Leonard, you must try to remember." His face was paler than she had ever seen, and his eyes bored into hers with an intensity that made her shrink back. He had been patting her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, but now his fingers dug into her skin.

"I think I heard something rustling, and then Leonard made this… choking noise. I felt something wet… and then… then he fell on top of me. I opened my eyes, and there was… so much blood. I was screaming for help. I tried to do something, but his eyes… he was gone." Her voice trailed off into a keening noise as she wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth.

Sheldon watched in growing horror as Penny swayed mindlessly in place. She was clearly traumatized, but from what he could piece together, she believed she saw Leonard murdered. It was the only logical conclusion, one that Sheldon had instinctively sensed the moment he saw Penny collapse in the doorway of the cabin. She looked as if someone had doused her with crimson paint. Although he'd never had any particular interest in criminology, he knew enough to recognize arterial spray patterns. Still, he needed to gather any information he could in a desperate attempt to disprove the evidence of his own eyes. It hadn't worked, and now his head spun, unable to accept the inevitable conclusion. He felt a strange sense of dislocation from his own body, as if he were a spectator looking down from above.

His head spun sickeningly as he tried to formulate some plan of action. Amy had already called the police, but she said their response was that they were short-staffed and unusually busy. Combined with the fact that the cabin was located deep in the woods, they couldn't give an estimate of how long it might take for help to arrive. Nothing about this made any sense. How would an attacker even know where to look for Penny and Leonard? Why would someone attack Leonard but leave Penny unharmed?

His gaze flicked back to her. With her chin sunken onto her chest, she'd gone quite still. He doubted she had fallen asleep; more likely, she'd passed out again after being forced to relive her ordeal. With a jolt, he realized it had taken quite some time for him to coax her to talk. Shouldn't Howard and Bernadette be back by now? His thoughts felt muddled. Had the police arrived yet? Maybe they had already found Howard and Bernadette. Maybe Leonard was just hurt or Penny had been mistaken, and everything would be just fine.

Amy walked back into the room and peered into his face with an intense expression. "I've drawn a bath for Penny. Help me get her into the tub. We can't leave her like this."

He frowned. "She's sleeping." Or was she? He wasn't quite sure… how odd. He felt woozy and shook his head as if to clear it.

"Take Penny's other arm," Amy instructed. Unable to think of anything else to do, he obeyed. He stumbled along unsteadily, supporting Penny's weight even as he kept tripping over his own feet. In the bathroom, Amy peeled the blanket away from Penny's body. He looked away. Something was wrong; some part of his mind was screaming at him, but he didn't know what it was trying to tell him. He lowered Penny into the warm water and stared dully at the red and brown streaks on his sleeve. No - this was wrong somehow.

"You look tired. Go lie down on your bed," Amy told him. He blinked at her. Her lips flattened, and she pushed and guided him down the hall until he fell onto his bed. He couldn't move. His entire body felt weighted down with sandbags, and yet he wasn't tired. A rush of panic tried to push past the lethargy, but it was a distant alarm, unable to rouse him from his stupor.

* * *

It was the cold that woke Penny, shocking her back to her senses. Convulsive shudders caused already-sore muscles to tighten painfully. With a moan, she opened her eyes and squinted at her surroundings as her headache renewed its sadistic throbbing. She was lying in a bathtub, mostly submerged in water which was an odd reddish-brown color. Her fingertips were wrinkled, and every inch of her skin was covered with goosebumps. Another shudder wracked her body. With an effort, she raised her arm and propped a hand on the tub's edge. Her nail beds were caked with dirt and blood. Slowly, she pushed herself into a sitting position, and her wet hair dripped reddish rivulets down her breasts and stomach. Only her torso seemed to be clean, and she frowned in confusion at the odd streaked pattern on her thighs. Unsteadily, she regained her feet, knocking over some object on the ledge of the tub.

Shivering again, she looked for a towel or robe, but there was only the blood-stained blanket she'd been wrapped in before. As she reached for it, the object she had knocked over earlier tumbled out of its folds. Penny took one look at it and froze. It was an electric toothbrush - not something she would be surprised to find in a bathroom. But this toothbrush had been stripped of all its bristles, and sparkly letters spelled a name down the shaft: Gerard. After years of hanging out with Amy, Penny had heard more than she'd ever wanted to about this particular battery powered device and the unconventional way Amy put it to use.

She looked down at the junction of her legs, and the pattern resolved itself into the shape of handprints on her inner thighs. A trembling shook her so fiercely that her legs almost gave way. Memories came flooding into her mind: all the creepy, inappropriate comments Amy made about her body, Amy's constant attempts to touch her or see her naked, and the one time Amy had actually kissed her. Penny had dismissed all these warnings signs as overeager hero worship or social awkwardness. She'd never considered that they might be evidence of an unhealthy obsession. Her breath shuddered in her chest as she remembered the last time she'd seen Amy. The mug - oh hell, she'd drunk whatever Amy had given her. Sheldon had, too. The tea must have been drugged. Fear trailed icy cold fingers down her spine as she realized that Amy was equally as obsessed with Sheldon. Once she had bragged about "leaving her scent" all over his office. Idiot that she was, Penny had just laughed at her friend's craziness, never seeing the psychotic behavior lurking just beneath the surface.

The thought of Amy hurting Sheldon in some way finally forced Penny to move. She lurched forward. Her limbs were wobbly and uncoordinated, but she kept going. By the time she made it to the bathroom door, she felt a little less groggy. She peered out into the hallway, and her eyes strained to see anything in the near darkness. Her heart was pounding wildly. For the first time in years, she was genuinely terrified. A faint noise drew her attention to the far end of the hallway, where dim light was shining from under a door. She crept closer, wishing she had something she could use as a weapon, but she was too scared for Sheldon to waste another second.

Reaching the door, she turned the knob as quietly as she could. The door was mercifully silent as it swung open, revealing a sight she could never erase from her mind. Sheldon was sprawled across the bed on his back, either naked or nearly so. Amy was straddling his body. She had stripped down to her bra and underwear. Both garments were oversized, ill-fitting, and a repulsive shade of tan that made her pale skin tone appear almost green in comparison. She was hunched over Sheldon, kissing or perhaps licking his chest. Penny couldn't hold back a gasp of horror. Amy jerked upright. Seeing Penny, her face contorted with fear and rage.

"You're not supposed to be awake," she hissed.

"Get off him!" Penny cried. Her voice trembled, undermining the harshness of her words.

Amy's eyes flicked to the nightstand. What Penny saw there made her blood run cold. A syringe lay on the tabletop, with a glass vial of clear liquid next to it. There was something else, thin and metallic, but she didn't get a good look at it before Amy flew toward her. Penny saw light glint along the barrel of the syringe. She stumbled backward, tripping over the hem of the blanket wrapped around her. Amy's arm came down toward her, holding the syringe in her fist. In a flash of fear, Penny realized that Amy might actually be trying to kill her. She twisted, avoiding the needle, but Amy's weight bore them both to the floor. Penny shoved Amy off of her and heard a faint crack as she did so. Amy let out a shriek of rage as she held up the syringe. The end of the tube dangled down, broken and leaking whatever dangerous substance it contained. Penny used the distraction to regain her feet, abandoning the blanket. Amy glanced toward the bed, and Penny looked, too. Her mind refused to process what she saw there. That was when Amy leaped toward her again. She tackled Penny, and they fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Penny was the stronger of the two. Normally, her junior rodeo background would serve her well in a situation like this, but she was still dazed and weak from whatever substance Amy had used to drug her. She struggled to push Amy off her as the other woman straddled her body and wrapped her hands around Penny's throat. Penny couldn't breathe. Her hands beat uselessly at Amy's face. Suddenly, Amy's grip relaxed a fraction, and she leaned down, kissing Penny roughly. Her teeth clamped down hard on a cut on Penny's lip, drawing blood, as she squeezed Penny's breast, pinching her nipple with bruising force. Penny cried out in rage and horror. With adrenaline-fueled revulsion, she twisted her body, shoving Amy to one side and rolling out from underneath her. She reached for the top of the dresser and pushed herself upright. Now she was near the door and wondered if she should make a run for it, but that would leave Sheldon alone, drugged and vulnerable.

Amy grabbed the other item from the nightstand, and now Penny could see what it was: a slender but deadly scalpel. Her face twisted with fury as she glared at Penny. "You've ruined everything," she growled.

"Why are you doing this?" Penny cried, hoping to buy some time.

"Because you never loved me, neither of you. You don't deserve me. You don't deserve to live." With these words, Amy rushed Penny again. Penny dodged the wild swing of the blade and then ducked under Amy's arm. She pivoted and shoved hard against the other woman's back. Amy stumbled forward into the door jam. Her head connected with an audible crack, and the scalpel fell from her hand as she swayed, dazed. Penny snatched up a lamp from the dresser, tugging sharply to yank the plug from the wall socket. She held it cocked and ready. "Don't make me use this," she warned, although her arm trembled as she spoke.

Too quick for Penny to react, Amy snatched up the scalpel and charged at her again. Penny struck at Amy with the lamp, but the angle was wrong, and she only landed a glancing blow. She couldn't get out of the way of the blade in time, and she screamed as the scalpel plunged deep into her shoulder. But she was made of stronger stuff than Amy realized. She'd had worse injuries while she was in junior rodeo, and now Amy was weaponless. Penny seized the lamp and swung it squarely at Amy's head. Her chin snapped back from the force of the blow, and she went down.

Penny took a step toward her. She had to find out if Amy was still conscious. But fire blazed up her shoulder, and all her energy drained from her in a rush. Darkness crept into the edges of her vision, and she collapsed onto the bed. The last thing she was aware of was a searing agony in her left side.

The pain soon forced her out of her faint, and she opened her eyes with a groan. She'd fallen onto the bed when she passed out and was now draped over an unfamiliar pair of legs. Squinting, she realized that the dark fabric she was seeing underneath the dark-haired legs were Sheldon's favorite plaid pants. They had been cut open, probably with the same scalpel that Amy used to stab her.

She tried to sit up but and bit back a scream as her movement jostled the blade still embedded in her shoulder. Dizzy and whimpering from the pain, she gripped the handle, braced herself, and yanked it out with one swift motion. Her vision swam, and every breath was excruciating, but she remained conscious. In another moment, she gritted her teeth against the pain and pushed herself up off the bed.

Turning her head, she was met with a surreal sight. Sheldon was sprawled on the bed, and the first thing she noticed - that she couldn't help but notice - was that he was fully aroused. His erection jutted obscenely over his flat stomach, even though she was sure he wasn't awake. He was completely nude, with the slashed remnants of his clothing and briefs pooled under his body. Fighting waves of nausea and dizziness, Penny grabbed the comforter with her uninjured arm and dragged it over as much of his body as she could manage. Then she made her way toward the head of the bed. His eyes were open but unfocused. When she shook his shoulder and called his name, he only blinked. She didn't think he was even aware of her presence.

Although she was reluctant to leave Sheldon alone when he was defenseless and insensible, she felt she had no choice. Amy had disappeared while Penny lay unconscious. Now she had to find out if her psychotic self-proclaimed bestie was still inside the cabin. She thought the heavy metal lamp base was still her best weapon, so she picked it up and cautiously poked her head into the hallway. Everything was silent and dark. The blood-stained quilt lay crumpled on the floor where it had come loose in her struggle with Amy. She didn't bother to pick it up. Instead, she carefully checked every room, inspecting every possible hiding place. Amy was gone.

Next, Penny locked all the windows and doors. She knew if Howard, Bernadette, or even Leonard managed to make their way back to the cabin, they wouldn't be able to get in. It was a gut-wrenching decision, but her other friends had now been gone for hours. Who knew what Amy might have done to them? She remembered Sheldon saying that Amy had left the cabin earlier with Howard and Bernadette, and then come back alone.

Only when the cabin was secure did Penny take a moment to drag on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, grateful that she'd packed something warm to wear. Then she hunted for her cell phone. She couldn't find it. After gathering up a pair of knives from the kitchen, a poker and a fire extinguisher - poor weapons, but all she could scavenge - she went back to Sheldon's room. He was still out of it, but his eyes roved around and he mumbled something incoherent under his breath. Penny took it as a good sign. After searching for his cell phone with just as little luck, she laid a set of clean clothes on the bed for him. Then, with a knife in her left hand and the poker in her right, she slumped on the floor with her back against the hard bed frame.

Some interminable amount of time later, Sheldon coughed and then croaked, "Penny?"

She rushed to his side. "Oh, thank god. I'm here. I need you to wake up."

He sat up slowly, winced and grabbed his head with both hands. "What... happened?" That was when he noticed the shreds of his clothing on the bed. He felt his chest, paled and yanked the comforter as high as it would go. "I'm naked. Why am I naked? What happened to me?" His voice rose in panic as he stared wildly at Penny, then shrank back from her.

"Leonard?" he asked in a pitiful voice.

"I don't know," she whispered as tears gathered in her eyes. "Amy drugged us both with the tea. I don't know where she is now. No one else has come back here. It's just the two of us."

Sheldon was almost as white as the sheet. He began to sit up, and then froze. With the heel of one hand, he pushed against the erection that was still clearly outlined, even beneath the blanket. The color drained from his face, and he looked like he was going to be sick. Penny looked away, unable to face him.

"What drugs did Amy give me?" he demanded in a shaky voice. "What did she do?"

"I don't know."

"What did she do to me?" he roared.

"_I don't know_!" Penny screamed back, almost hysterically. She knew she would never get that image out of her head: of Amy crawling up Sheldon's body like some pale, bloated spider. Yet the idea of poisoning his mind with that vile image was more than she could bear. She sprang up from the bed and then cried out as the movement caused blinding pain in her shoulder. Sheldon watched her, wide-eyed, as she collapsed back onto the bed with a moan.

"Was your shoulder injured before?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Amy stabbed me with a scalpel. I hit her pretty good with that lamp though." She nodded toward the pile of improvised weapons.

"She tried to kill you…" He shuddered. "I don't remember much of what happened after I drank the tea she gave us, but both of us were unconscious. Why didn't she kill us then?"

Penny's head dropped, and she fought against the rising gorge in her throat. "She wanted something else first. She said she wanted us to love her."

"You, too? Good Lord, did she-"

Penny thought of the toothbrush sitting on the lip of the bathtub and the handprints on her upper thighs. Trembling, she turned her head so he wouldn't see the tears flowing down her cheeks, but they left pale streaks in the dirt and blood smearing her face.

For several heartbeats, he said nothing. Then he told her, "Turn your back. I need to get dressed." Penny did as he asked, fighting to gather her wits.

Being clothed seemed to have a calming effect on him. "I assume Amy never called the police. Have you tried to do so?" he asked.

Penny wiped at her face and shook her head. "I can't find our phones. I think she took them."

His mouth drew into a grim line. "Very logical… insane, but logical. She's everything my mother always feared I would be."

"Then your mother didn't know you very well. You're nothing like Amy."

"I thought I was," he whispered. "I thought she was perfect for me."

"You're not a psychopath," Penny snapped. He looked up at her and then nodded.

"We have to go find our friends. Maybe it's not too late for some of them."

Sheldon did take a few moments to search Amy's room for any further useful items. He found a small kit containing a few unlabeled vials and some syringes. He grimaced and poured the contents down the sink.

"Do you know what they were?" Penny asked.

"Not with absolute certainty, but it's likely they contained flunitrazepam and sildenafil," he said in a strained voice. He didn't comment further until she prompted, "What's that mean in English?"

Instead of getting annoyed with her, he tensed and didn't move for several seconds as if frozen in place. She circled to stand in front of him. "Sweetie, look at me. What's wrong?"

"She violated me," he bit out. "She sedated me with what you may have heard called the date rape drug, and then dosed me with viagra to make sure I would have an erection whether I was conscious or not. Viagra only works if there is also some sort of physical stimulation."

Penny's shocked gasp sounded loud in the still bedroom. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. When she opened them, she squeezed the poker until her knuckles turned white and said in a murderous voice, "I'm going to fucking kill that bitch."

* * *

Predawn light was just beginning to lessen the gloom as they left the cabin. Holding a flashlight, Sheldon circled the cabin while Penny guarded his back, lamp and fire extinguisher at the ready. Each of them also carried a knife tucked into their back pockets, and Penny still had the scalpel, now wrapped in a washcloth as a makeshift sheath.

"Here," Sheldon called softly, pointing to where the leaf cover had been disturbed.

"How do you know that wasn't made when Leonard and I… left?" she asked.

"You took the path, didn't you?" he replied, pointing. Sure enough, there was a path leading away from the cabin in the opposite direction.

"I forgot," she confessed.

"Shock-induced trauma," he muttered absently as he moved on.

He wasn't much of a tracker, but his father had taught him the basics as a boy. He was grateful for the obscure skill as they followed Amy's trail. It led directly south, and after fifteen minutes or so, Sheldon halted.

"Do you see that?" he whispered, pointing.

Penny could just barely make out a pale shape through the trees. "What is it?"

"It looks like some sort of concrete bunker. Be as quiet as you can."

As they crept closer, Sheldon stopped once and pointed at the ground. Smears of blood dotted the leaves which were churned up in a wide swath. Even Penny could see that something had been dragged along this way - something that was bleeding heavily. She clutched Sheldon's arm but remained silent.

There was a metal door on the opposite side of the bunker, and they watched it for a few minutes before Sheldon motioned her forward.

The door made a slight scraping noise. Penny tensed, but there was no reaction. Then she heard it - a low groan. Someone was still alive. Her fingers tightened convulsively on Sheldon's arm as he eased open the door wide enough for them to slip inside. An amber light bulb affixed to the bunker wall illuminated a small landing and stairs descending into darkness.

With his chin, Sheldon indicated the steps and leaned close enough that she could feel the warmth of his breath as he whispered, barely audible, "I'll go first and distract her. Then maybe you can ambush her."

Penny shook her head vehemently. There was no way she was going to give Amy another chance to hurt him. In response, Sheldon pointed to her weapons, then to her. His meaning was clear: she was the fighter, not him. He was trusting her to keep him safe. Her hand closed on his forearm one last time: good luck. He nodded as if he understood and silently descended the stairs.

Sheldon didn't know what he was going to find as he went down the steps as quietly as he could. Down below, he could see a narrow strip of light off to his left, as if it was coming from under a door. After a few careful steps in the inky darkness, his foot struck something heavy that yielded slightly. He froze, listening intently. He heard another groan and then what sounded like crying. Two people? Did he dare to hope that he might find more than one of his friends alive? Carefully, he pressed his palm against the lens of the flashlight and then turned it on, allowing just the tiniest sliver of light to escape. The narrow band of illumination fell on the bundle at his feet, and he couldn't hold back the shocked gasp that escaped him. He saw a hand, a wool skirt, and then long brown hair. Amy's eyes stared sightlessly at the ceiling, face frozen in an expression of terror. Just above the bridge of her glasses, a tiny trickle of blood oozed from a small, neat hole in the center of her forehead. Sheldon swayed, feeling faint. It wasn't just the shock of seeing the dead body of a woman whom, just hours ago, he had complacently considered his girlfriend. No, it was the damning realization that he had never fully understood this situation. Amy had drugged both Penny and himself, assaulted them, and then tried to kill Penny. Now someone had murdered her in turn, but not anyone who had any interest in helping her victims. An accomplice, perhaps?

A faint scrape alerted him to Penny's presence as she came down the last few steps. He shone the strip of light on Amy's face again, letting her draw her own conclusions. He heard her quick indrawn breath, felt her fingers tap his forearm: who? Somehow, he knew this was what she was asking. He raised a shoulder in a shrug. Her fingers pushed at his elbow: move on. So he did. When they got to the door, he switched off the flashlight. Reaching behind him, he touched her side, fingers spread wide, signaling her to wait. Stepping forward, he slowly pushed open the door. It creaked slightly, and so he rushed into the room, only to stop dead in his tracks.

He saw two men, both very familiar to him. Raj stood, holding something in his hand as he bent over a figure which was barely recognizable as Howard. Howard's face was swollen and crusted with blood, and he was bound tightly to a chair. His clothes were torn, showing dozens of wounds, collectively seeping so much blood that it pooled on the floor under the chair.

Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, Raj glanced over. Sheldon could now see he was holding an acetylene torch.

He shook his head when he saw Sheldon. "I see Amy couldn't even manage to keep you sedated. Too bad. You kept me from being deported once. I don't want to kill you, but I'm afraid it can't be helped." His tone of voice was conversational, almost cheerful. A quiet sob drew Sheldon's attention to a figure huddled on the floor: Bernadette. She looked at him despairingly. Her glasses were missing, and one side of her face was darkening into a nasty bruise.

"I'm sorry," she wailed in her little-girl voice. "We're both sorry. Please let us go. I'll do anything you want."

"Oh no," Raj said with a mocking smile. "That was my line. You played me for the biggest fool. For years, I let everyone mock me for never being able to find a girlfriend. I did whatever you wanted… whatever he wanted, too," he added, glancing at the battered wreck tied to the chair in front of him. "I let you both string me along, hoping that someday you'd be willing to tell the world what we meant to each other. Then you got pregnant with his child, and I knew. You would always love him more. I was always going to be an outsider."

He swept the torch flame across Howard's face. Bernadette screamed for him to stop. She tried to grab for Raj's leg, but stopped short with a jerking motion. Ominously, Howard merely twitched as his skin blackened.

"Raj… Raj, stop. You have to stop," Sheldon begged in a reedy voice he didn't even recognize as his. Bile rose in his throat as he realized it was pointless to try to reason with the man he once called his friend. For years, Sheldon's mother had wondered if he was crazy, but this was what true insanity looked like. There was only one hope of any of them making it out alive: a former junior rodeo champ. Sheldon edged toward Bernadette, keeping as far away from Raj as possible.

Raj set down the torch and from a table behind him, picked up the largest butcher knife Sheldon had ever seen. "Not another step," he said pleasantly as he traced a thin line across Howard's throat. Bernadette's sobs reached a new crescendo as she begged him not to kill her husband. Sheldon swayed and fought the darkness creeping into the edges of his vision as he noticed Howard hadn't even twitched as the knife touched him.

Then there was a blur of red, and a sound that Sheldon could never forget no matter how much he wished to - a dull, wet thud like a melon being cracked open. Raj dropped to the floor, blood gushing from a gruesome indentation in his skull. The fire extinguisher dropped from Penny's hands as red began seeping through the shoulder of her sweatshirt. Tears streamed down her face. "I had to… I hit him as hard as I could. I knew I only had one shot."

Cowardly as it may have been, Sheldon felt his eyes roll back and gratefully surrendered to the darkness. When he opened his eyes, his head throbbed. He reached up and felt a swelling bump near his temple. He must have hit his head on the concrete floor of the bunker. Fainting had not been a logical thing to do, but his mind had simply shut down from the horror of it all.

He clambered unsteadily to his feet. Penny was kneeling next to Bernie, her arms wrapped around the other woman who was weeping softly.

At his approach, Penny looked up at him, and he cast a questioning glance at Howard. She shook her head, then said aloud, "Bernie's chained to the wall. See if Raj had a key on him."

Now that he was closer, he could see the heavy links which wrapped around Bernadette's leg and trailed off into the darkness. A sturdy padlock fastened the chain around her delicate ankle, which was scraped raw and puffed up to twice its normal size. She'd fought as hard as she could to reach her husband.

Sheldon's hands shook as he rolled Raj over. Up close, the wound Penny had inflicted was the stuff of nightmares. He knew he would never be able to forget what he saw but considered it no more than he deserved. In his fear, he'd been all but useless. Without Penny's help, he'd be dead by now.

When he returned with the key, Bernie was talking to Penny. Her voice was even higher than normal and so fast he could barely understand her.

"This is not your fault," Penny told her fiercely. "Raj went crazy. No one could have known. Whatever was going on with him, he kept it hidden from all of us."

Bernie shook her head. "I knew. I pushed him too far. No, no, I have to tell you," she insisted when Penny tried to shush her. "It all started while Howie and I were engaged. We were all at my place, and Raj was there too, a third wheel like always. We were playing this drinking game. One thing led to another and…" The chain links fell to the ground with a loud clatter as Sheldon tried to make sense of her rambling narrative. "...my parents were always super-strict, and it left this wild streak of rebellion in me. I knew that Raj was bi; we all knew, but I didn't mind as long as I was a part of it too. To tell the truth, I wanted to see it. I wanted to know what it was like, and it was so hot. Howard promised me he still loved only me, but I knew he'd always wanted this too. But we couldn't be together, all three of us, at Howard's mother's house. He swore it would give her a heart attack. Raj sulked, but what could we do? Once we got married, what we were doing with Raj started to feel like a game I didn't want to play anymore. When I found out I was pregnant, I told Howard it had to stop, and he agreed. We told Raj last week." Bernie halted abruptly, sagging like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Then she raised her head and struggled to her feet.

"What are you doing? Don't get up-"

"I need to see him. I need to see my Howie."

Penny tried to dissuade her, but the smaller woman had nerves of steel. Sheldon, the only relatively uninjured party, helped her limp across the room. She cried out when she saw her husband, turning her face away. "Is he…?"

"There wasn't anything we could do," Penny said gently.

Bernie pushed Sheldon's arm away and sank to the floor near Raj's body. Her feet smeared the two pools of blood together into a crimson rorschach. She stared at her hands, stained with the blood of both men she had loved. In one swift movement, she grabbed up the knife. "Don't tell my parents," she pleaded. Before either Sheldon or Penny could react, she plunged the blade deep into her abdomen.

Penny screamed, "Bernie, no!" She rushed over and fell to her knees at her friend's side. "Why?" she cried brokenly.

"I couldn't... live... with myself. What kind… of mother… would I..." Her eyelids drooped, and she gave one final shudder and then was still.

Horror stricken, Penny glanced at Sheldon imploringly. "Help her! Can't you do something?"

Sheldon's face was very pale as he knelt beside the two women. Reaching out, he used the hem of Bernadette's blouse to wipe the knife handle clean.

"What… what are you doing?" Penny asked. She could barely get the words out, her teeth were chattering so hard. She was going into shock, he realized with a sense of detachment. It was all up to him now. He wasn't a hero. He couldn't save anyone, but he could at least give the victim's families some peace.

"It was Bernadette's last request," he replied, surprised how much that phrase moved him. All his life, his friends had assumed he was completely unemotional, but the truth was that he simply repressed his feelings as much as he was able. Now grief was beginning to penetrate through the more immediate layers of fear and denial. He couldn't fall apart; Penny needed him. She saved both their lives but had clearly reached the limit of her strength. He kept talking, hoping it would help her stay focused. "Her parents are both authoritarian and staunchly Catholic. She knew they would adhere to the traditional belief that anyone who commits suicide won't be allowed to enter heaven."

She didn't respond as he tugged on Raj's sleeve and gingerly grasped his hand. He wrapped Raj's lifeless fingers around the knife handle before rearranging the body the way it had been. Then he dragged his fingers and Penny's along it for good measure, as if they had attempted to remove the knife.

"I don't know how I'll be able to lie convincingly to the police, but allowing her parents to believe her soul is at peace was the only thing she ever asked of me."

A blank stare was the only response he got. Penny needed medical attention. She had not only suffered extreme emotional trauma but also blood loss from the stab wound in her shoulder. Gritting his teeth, Sheldon approached Raj's body once more. A quick pat down of his pockets produced a cell phone. There was no signal in the basement of the concrete bunker, so he hauled Penny to her feet. Staggering, he half-dragged her up the stairs, and finally they were out in the open.

Bright morning sunshine and cheerful birdsong greeted them in grotesque irony. Sheldon huddled with Penny in a patch of sunlight as he made the call to 911. After he relayed the bare facts, there wasn't much more to say, although he kept the line open. He held Penny against his side the entire time as she shivered and made keening noises that unnerved him. They clung to each other in their shock and grief, and Sheldon found himself pleading with her over and over again: "Don't leave me. Don't you leave me too." He was still holding her in his arms as sirens began to wail in the distance.


End file.
